The Osage Orange

hamsco

hamsco

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Oct 30, 2015
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I know this is a knife thread, and I'll try to get to knives quickly. The Osage Orange is a great tree with wood that has many uses. The indians prized it for making long bows, and it's great for tool handles, which leads us to knife handles.
A couple of people on the porch have stated how it's their favorite wood for knife handles. I love the handles on my #18 Coyote, and I'm gonna search out other knives that use it.
Hedge Apple
Bois D'arc
Osage

What ever you call it, let's see some pictures.

6lsxCKr.jpg


z42SoYo.jpg


8DiafyB.jpg
 
My first and only knife with O.O. is my 21 Bull Buster:



I like the wood enough to long after knives that I would have no interest in if they were clad in anything else. Most woods used on knives, and most woods in general, start off beautiful and become less so as they age. Woods that retain the same look for long periods of time, like ebony and african blackwood, are coveted. Osage is the one wood that, in my opinion, gets better as it ages. My sodbuster looks better and better the longer I have it. Other woods can gain character through carry and use, but the character of the grain gradually fades. Osage starts with an odd plain yellow look that I really don't care for, but quickly starts to darken into a beautiful brown and the grain really starts to pop. It's easily one of my favorite handle materials, and I don't really care for most woods. I plan on owning more in the future.
 
hamsco said:
I know this is a knife thread, and I'll try to get to knives quickly. The Osage Orange is a great tree with wood that has many uses. The indians prized it for making long bows, and it's great for tool handles, which leads us to knife handles.
A couple of people on the porch have stated how it's their favorite wood for knife handles. I love the handles on my #18 Coyote, and I'm gonna search out other knives that use it.
Hedge Apple
Bois D'arc
Osage

What ever you call it, let's see some pictures.
z42SoYo.jpg
Click to expand...

hamsco, I've never seen wood grain that looked quite like that, almost like cloth.

I only recently learned that osage orange wood comes from the "horse apple" tree. (that's what we kids called it when I lived in Dallas) My only knife in osage is the new coyote, and I look forward to seeing how the wood ages, along with the pen that Dopic1 turned for me:

 
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Some beautiful osage knives here. Osage is such an unbelievably hard tough wood, and beautiful to boot. I bought a Coyote in osage, not quite as pretty as some here, but I love it. Osage darkens in response to ultraviolet, so if you keep it in your pocket all the time, you won't see much change. With exposure to the sun, it will darken to a very dark brown. I have mine in the window now, been there for a couple of days. It's starting to darken. You can finish it with UV protective spar varnish if you don't want it to change, or let it age. Once you break through the surface of an aged old piece of osage, you're right back into the bright yellow again. I've made longbows out of old fence posts that were in the ground for 50 years. The wood looks cracked and weathered, but cut into it, and it's bright yellow inside. It's got growth rings of soft white spring wood, and thicker rings of hard yellow summer wood. They are easy to see on the pen above.
 
idahoguy said:
Some beautiful osage knives here. Osage is such an unbelievably hard tough wood, and beautiful to boot. I bought a Coyote in osage, not quite as pretty as some here, but I love it. Osage darkens in response to ultraviolet, so if you keep it in your pocket all the time, you won't see much change. With exposure to the sun, it will darken to a very dark brown. I have mine in the window now, been there for a couple of days. It's starting to darken. You can finish it with UV protective spar varnish if you don't want it to change, or let it age. Once you break through the surface of an aged old piece of osage, you're right back into the bright yellow again. I've made longbows out of old fence posts that were in the ground for 50 years. The wood looks cracked and weathered, but cut into it, and it's bright yellow inside. It's got growth rings of soft white spring wood, and thicker rings of hard yellow summer wood. They are easy to see on the pen above.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the info. I didn't know it was UV, rather than oils and stuff that darkened the wood. It may take a while for mine to darken, then. I carry it every day, but mostly use it indoors. Here's a view showing more of that light spring wood on the pen

and
 
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Morning Rey, what Idahoguy said is spot on Osage is sensitive to ultraviolet light and will darken over time. If put in direct sunlight it will turn dark brown. The grain you said looked like "cloth" depends on how the wood cut, when it's quarter sawn it will give it that look when it's flat sawn it will have a much more plain look.
 
I have a custom made Gossman Polaris, with osage orange scales. The Polaris is a bushcraft type knife, and I need to find a pic of it.
 
around here it's field apple or horse apple, and farmers cut it as a nuisance tree and sell it for fire wood-the ones that don't make fence posts out of it. they'll last over a hundred years in the ground. as a turner it's nice to find it all bundled up and waiting to go at the local hardware. R8shell why don't you try a uv bulb from your local garden supply-same effect, and you could leave it on all night:)..in a different room than the one you sleep in. almost all woods darken somewhat in exposure to uv light ( a few don't).
thanks, Neal
p.s. some comes from Argentina, as well as the U.S. , imported stuff is supposed to be more red-orange and the home-grown:) yellow-orange. but it all varies with the tree.
 
i love osage orange also. AS kids we called the fruit monkey brains hehe
 
That pic of that brought back memories of huge "horse apple" fights between the neighborhood kids. We had three or four trees on the block and my brothers and I would fill up the old Radio Flyer and go looking for victims. This was when you were told to "go outside and play" your mom meant it. We had one channel on our old black and white which we were allowed to watch after dinner. Some of those big old "apples" would knock you down if you didn't see them coming.--KV
 
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Call me crazy, but I kinda miss the bright orange of my OO 73. Any way of reviving it short of sanding?

~Jim
 
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